[jh51]

I don't know if this belongs in a general disucssion forum or one of the rules forums, but I am posting it here tp start.

Recently I was playing in a Regional compact KO event. Almost from the beginning one of the opponents at our table was harping about the pace of the play, expressing concern that we might not complete our boards in the allotted time. It was my feeling at the time (to be proven true later) that we were proceding at a normal pace to complete the round. About 5 tricks into board 10 of 12, there was an announcement by the director that everyone in the compact KO needed to be on their last board in x minutes. I heard x as 30 but both opponents insisted he had said 3. I quickly realized that I could take the rest of the tricks and claimed. We quickly pulled the cards from the next board and rapidly bid it. I became declarer and found after about 1 trick I could claim my contract. So within about 3 minutes we were on the final board.

We could now take our time and it soon became obvious that x had indeed been 30, not 3. I could not help but feel that the opponents delibrately tried to rush us throughout the match to throw us off our game. What should we have done to protect ourselves?

[hrothgar]

jh51, on 2011-June-02, 12:28, said:

Recently I was playing in a Regional compact KO event. Almost from the beginning one of the opponents at our table was harping about the pace of the play, expressing concern that we might not complete our boards in the allotted time.

What should we have done to protect ourselves?

Option 1: AKA the "passive aggressive" option.

When your opponent complains about the pace of play, engage him in a long drawn out conversation regarding why he is concerned about the pace of play. Ask many followup questions. Offer to call the direct over and see if he has any suggestions regarding how to speed things up. Through the entire process make sure to be smiling and friendly.

Option 2: AKA the "active aggressive" option

When your opponent complains about the pace of play, tell him that things would move much faster if he would shut the ***** up and play cards rather than wasting time with his bitching.

I prefer option 2....

[Echognome]

Call the TD and clarify the time left?

[JLOGIC]

If your opponents are concerned about the pace of play and feel it is disproportionately your fault, they should call the director in order to protect themselves (If they don't call the director, you could dispute/lie that it was your fault). Then if boards are thrown out or whatever it will be you who is penalized.

If your opponents are trying to rush you and you feel that you are not in fact slow, pointing them to the clock would be a good idea (if there is no clock, call the director to clarify time as gnome suggested). If they continue to try and rush you frivolously when there is a lot of time left, call the director and they can be penalized (likely they will just be warned and they will shutup).

[JLOGIC]

hrothgar, on 2011-June-02, 13:45, said:

Option 1: AKA the "passive aggressive" option.

When your opponent complains about the pace of play, engage him in a long drawn out conversation regarding why he is ocncerned about the pace of play. As many followup questions. Offer to call the direct over and see if he has any suggestions regarding how to speed things up. Through the entire process make sure to be smiling and friendly.

Option 2: AKA the "active aggressive" option

When your opponent complains about the pace of play, tell him that things would move much faster if he would shut the ***** up and play cards rather than wasting time with his bitching.

I prefer option 2....

And of course if you want to handle it without directors option 2 is fine (though if you do what hrothgar said you will get a ZT penalty). However, saying something along the lines of every time they talk while you're thinking and break your concentration, it takes you that much longer to play, so if they would like the pace to be faster they should stop harassing you, would be fine and not get penalized. Another common one is to tell them that you're sorry but sometimes good bridge players have to think about hands (though that would border on possibly getting penalized).

You could simply say that they are out of line with their harassment, because you are not in fact slower than the pace allowed, and if they say that you are ask them to either prove it by stating how many minutes are allowed per board, and what the time is at that moment, and if they don't know then tell them they do not even know how much time is allowed so they should stop with their harassment. You can threaten to call the director then if you still wish for no directors to be there, they will shut up.

I definitely would not just sit there take it from them as they are out of line. If you let stuff like that actually make you play too fast and throw you off that is terrible on your part, not just theirs.

[hrothgar]

JLOGIC, on 2011-June-02, 13:54, said:

though if you do what hrothgar said you will get a ZT penalty

Strangely enough, I have gotten nailed with a ZT penalty once or twice...

[jh51]

The only visible clocks were for the pairs games in the same venue. I suppose I should have called the director to ensure that we were on a proper pace, and then told the opponents to cool it when it was determined we were. Time was only an issue because this was the first match of the session for a compact KO. For the second match the directors were more lenient.

[JLOGIC]

hrothgar, on 2011-June-02, 14:01, said:

Strangely enough, I have gotten nailed with a ZT penalty once or twice...

I guarantee you have not gotten more than me! Though per board played you probably have... I have to be more careful than you since it's my job though heh.

[jh51]

Echognome, on 2011-June-02, 13:48, said:

Call the TD and clarify the time left?

If you are talking about the 3/30 minute issue, a calling the TD might have taken more than 3 minutes if that was correct.

It might have been wise to have called the director earlier in the session when they made one of their remarks.

[JLOGIC]

jh51, on 2011-June-02, 14:01, said:

The only visible clocks were for the pairs games in the same venue. I suppose I should have called the director to ensure that we were on a proper pace, and then told the opponents to cool it when it was determined we were. Time was only an issue because this was the first match of the session for a compact KO. For the second match the directors were more lenient.

Jh, they were effectively bullies, and you effectively let them bully you. As we would tell any kid in school if they were getting bullied, the worst possible course of action is to just take it, and even comply with the bullies, which is what you did.

[kenberg]

I sometimes say, once, "I rarely have time problems". This is a factual statement. For me, I find it a trap to let them engage me in ny sort of conversation. I am not by nature a very aggressive person and I get uncomfortable trying to be one. If they get me going, they have already won a victory.

If they persist, I might call the director myself. I really do not want to get engaged with someone who is trying to rattle me. I would suggest to the director that we all hold our conversation to exactly what is needed for the playing and recording of the hands.

There is no way to be certain (although you can often make a pretty good guess) what their purpose is. Perhaps they rush their meals, honk the instant a light turns green, and rush through other things rapidly as well. Who knows, and more to the point, who cares?

I seldom have time problems, that's a fact, and I see no reason that I need to discuss anything further with people that I don't know and probably would not enjoy knowing.

[xxhong]

If you want to save some time, try the same strategy and push back to them when they slow down. Of course, it's the best to know how much time left.

jh51, on 2011-June-02, 12:28, said:

I don't know if this belongs in a general disucssion forum or one of the rules forums, but I am posting it here tp start.

Recently I was playing in a Regional compact KO event. Almost from the beginning one of the opponents at our table was harping about the pace of the play, expressing concern that we might not complete our boards in the allotted time. It was my feeling at the time (to be proven true later) that we were proceding at a normal pace to complete the round. About 5 tricks into board 10 of 12, there was an announcement by the director that everyone in the compact KO needed to be on their last board in x minutes. I heard x as 30 but both opponents insisted he had said 3. I quickly realized that I could take the rest of the tricks and claimed. We quickly pulled the cards from the next board and rapidly bid it. I became declarer and found after about 1 trick I could claim my contract. So within about 3 minutes we were on the final board.

We could now take our time and it soon became obvious that x had indeed been 30, not 3. I could not help but feel that the opponents delibrately tried to rush us throughout the match to throw us off our game. What should we have done to protect ourselves?

[mycroft]

If there was a TD wandering around your area, I would flag her down as I could and politely ask how much time was left in the match.

If there weren't, I would suggest to the pusher that if he thought I was taking too much time, that he should call the TD and let her handle it, and if it's not important enough to do that, please just let me play.

I like Ken's response, though - which fits me as well. However, I'm never savvy enough to do it at the table. My responses are probably just as wrong as any of the others up here, but given that my nature is strongly passive-aggressive, I try to damp it down and push it on the TDs.

I also have been known to say, when it came to it, "I haven't been very slow - except when <pusher> breaks my concentration to tell me to speed up. Then, of course, I have to take the time to remember where I was in the decision tree." The implication is obvious, and at least the truth (if not the whole truth), and the TDs hear everything I said...

[barmar]

jh51, on 2011-June-02, 14:03, said:

If you are talking about the 3/30 minute issue, a calling the TD might have taken more than 3 minutes if that was correct.

Unlike requesting rulings, you don't have to halt play while you wait for the TD to come. So you should "Director, please", then resume playing.

[mrdct]

jh51, on 2011-June-02, 12:28, said:

I could not help but feel that the opponents delibrately tried to rush us throughout the match to throw us off our game. What should we have done to protect ourselves?

I would strongly recommend having a look through Gavin Wolpert's video series on www.bridgewinners.com the most recent of which carries some very sage advice about how to handle time presure situations. Basically at the start of a two-board round which Gavin and Joel were late starting due to hold-up unrelated to them, Gavin preemptively called the TD to make sure he was aware that they were starting late just in case they need to argue their way out of a slow play fine later. As it happened, Joel took an eternity to play the first board (albeit superbly) which left only a minute or two for the second board. Before they started the second board Barry Rigal, one of their opponents for the round, purposefully and quite rightly instructed his partner to not feel under any presure or obligation to play quickly.

One of my regular partners can be quite slow on tricky hands and from time to time the opponents piss and moan about it. My general advice to him is that if the opponents give him the hurry-up by all means try to eliminate non-bridge related time wasting such as post mortems and not getting onto the next board promptly, but under no circumstances should you try to speed up your thought processes as that will just lead to an error more costly than a slow play fine. I usually politely but firmly tell opponents giving me the hurry-up that if you think we are in time trouble call the TD, but otherwise keep it to yourself as I'm now going to have to recount the hand as you broke my concentration.

[Elianna]

JLOGIC, on 2011-June-02, 13:54, said:

(though if you do what hrothgar said you will get a ZT penalty).

Not if you say it to me, even in front of a director.

[mgoetze]

jh51, on 2011-June-02, 12:28, said:

I don't know if this belongs in a general disucssion forum or one of the rules forums, but I am posting it here tp start.

"Offline Bridge".

[Free]

hrothgar, on 2011-June-02, 13:45, said:

Option 1: AKA the "passive aggressive" option.

When your opponent complains about the pace of play, engage him in a long drawn out conversation regarding why he is concerned about the pace of play. Ask many followup questions. Offer to call the direct over and see if he has any suggestions regarding how to speed things up. Through the entire process make sure to be smiling and friendly.

Option 2: AKA the "active aggressive" option

When your opponent complains about the pace of play, tell him that things would move much faster if he would shut the ***** up and play cards rather than wasting time with his bitching.

I prefer option 2....

There's also the "simply aggressive" option:

When your opponent complains about the pace of play and you're sure he's got no reason to complain at all, just tell them "you think this is slow? I'll show you what slow really is" and show him how much slower you can actually play...

Personally I prefer one of Justin's methods: telling them that I have to start all over each time they interrupt me. Usually it's quiet after that. If they keep bugging you, just call the TD.

[blackshoe]

There has been a problem at the the table (that being that opponents are harrassing you). This is a violation of the laws of the game (see Law 74A2). What should you do when there has been a violation of the laws? Simple: call the TD and report the facts to him.